The question is, If God is good and all powerful why does He allow bad things to happen? All of us no matter who you are have had to deal with troubling situations, for instance, a loved one dying, why would a loving God allow people to die, or the current (as of 1st April 2020) COVID-19 pandemic, why would a loving God allow a virus to kill over 44,000 people or many other sad and horrible things that happen on this earth. First off we must look at what it means for God to be Good.
*Note, from now on when I say “good” if in reference to God I will capitalize the G to make the distinction between the human definition or understanding of good and God’s!
When the Bible says God is Good, there is a disconnect between our human definition of good and God’s definition of Good, the definition of the word Good used by God in the Bible is absolute moral perfection i.e.He cannot sin. So what does this mean in the grand scheme of things, well the short answer to the question at hand is, it’s our fault, the long answer? Well let me unpack things for you…
In the Beginning, God created Adam and Eve as the Bible describes in Genesis then Adam brought sin into the world. God is a Holy being He cannot sin and God is also eternal -eternity past to eternity present- and in Genesis 1:27 God expresses that we were made in His image. So the obstacle here is we being made in God’s Holy and eternal image have gravely misrepresented It and the punishment for that is hell, eternal separation from God because of His Nature. Now an amazing thing is while God is laying out the curse in Genesis 3:14-24 to the satan, Adam and Eve He cannot even finish without making a promise.
15 And I will put enmity
Between you(satan) and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
God explains here that there will a Savior to come, when He says there will be enmity between you and the woman’s seed (mankind), it is to portray that satan does not have control over man as he previously thought the enmity or separator is God and His sovereign Will. And God will bruise the serpent (satan) on his head which is a fatal blow to a serpent or animal while he can only bruise Him(Jesus who is to come) on his heel which is not fatal. Romans 5:20 says where sin abounds, grace abounds that much more. God’s Mercy and Loving-kindness is so amazing where no matter who we are or what we have done we are not too far away from Him to receive His love, where ever sin reaches God’s Grace is that much more higher. Ultimately the question is no longer “why does God allow bad things to happen?’ the question is now why does God allow good things to happen despite how we treat Him, Constantly shaking our fists cursing Him blaspheming His Holy name, He is our own creator but we treat Him in a revolting manner not listening to what He says about how to move through the world He created but when our human endeavors and passions fail us we sit in wonder and then curse God because we didn’t listen, yet with where all that sin abounds us, God’s grace abounds that much more. That is the Gospel, that is the good news.
For those Under God’s sovereignty He has a perfect Plan, a perfect Will and in that things that we consider as bad are actually being used to strengthen us and we shouldn’t worry Luke 12:26-33 this a fundamental doctrine you cannot forget!!
A very important reference to get a deeper understanding of this topic is The book of Job. Shortly, Job was the most righteous man in the eyes of the Lord, He feared God and turned away from evil many other good things, and God was showing him to satan but said Job was only righteous because nothing bad has happened to him but if God removed all his possessions surely Job would curse Him to His face. So The Lord allowed satan to test Job, Job- by God’s account a righteous man- lost everything he had but within all that chaos Job still trusted God and was understanding of the important fact that God is merciful and every good thing we have is a gift from Him Job 1:20-22
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 He said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
In the end, The Lord resorted all of Job’s possessions. This is a very important example we must read to understand the grace of our loving God.
So in total, we are made to understand that through sin arises the problems of life, God gives us the most wonderful gift, the choice to do whatever we want, few choose to follow God’s outline for the world that He created and go down the wide road of destruction but regardless of anyone’s choices the most important factor to remember here on this earth is while we do get to choose what we want to do we do not get to choose the outcome of what we do. There are only two options pay for your sin against an eternal God in eternal punishment or allow the penal substitution to take place on your life through the blood of Jesus Christ who took the wrath of God and be saved. The only way someone can have a life where nothing bad happens to them is to never sin, then from birth to death your life will be perfect, but ironically the only man who did that took all the punishment for us.
All text was written by Kwabena Duku sourced from the Bible with help from Bible.com answersingenesis.org and gotquestions.org
Find me on Twitter and Instagram @Official_Bkim or Email me bkinternationalministries@gmail.com Thanks for reading.
Bible Answers by Bra Kwabena 